ANJ: French online sports betting stakes up 12% to €11.5bn in 2025, with excessive players dominating niche leagues

France's gambling regulator, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), has published a per-sport analysis of the 2025 online sports betting market. Stakes rose 12.0% to €11.5 billion and gross gaming revenue grew 10.4% to €1.77 billion, even though the year had no major international tournament. The ANJ points to a larger football calendar and steady demand for tennis as the main drivers.

Football accounted for 54.9% of stakes, or €6.32 billion, up 10.2%. The regulator notes that 2024 included Euro 2024 and its €438 million in stakes, so it puts underlying football growth between 10% and 19%. The new Club World Cup generated €248 million. The Champions League became the most-bet competition at €829 million, up 48.6%, as its new format lifted the number of matches from 137 to 189. The ANJ attributes three-quarters of that growth to the extra matches. The PSG v Inter Milan final drew the most stakes of any match, at €38.2 million.

Tennis stakes rose 16.0% to €2.65 billion, or 23.0% of the market. Women's competitions made up about 40% of tennis betting, against 2% in football. Basketball took 8.8% of stakes, while volleyball stakes rose 20.9% and its GGR rose 47.2% as operator margin increased from 12.3% to 14.8%. The regulator also flagged table tennis, where stakes rose 47.3% to €152 million amid closer international integrity scrutiny.

The market had 5.27 million active player accounts and 3.65 million unique players. Average annual stake per bettor reached €3,159, up from €2,512 in 2020, which the ANJ says may point to more intensive play. Operators paid €180 million in bonuses, equal to 1.6% of stakes, with 80% aimed at retaining existing customers.

French rules cap return to player at 85% as an annual average for each operator. The market-wide rate was 84.67%, up from 84.45% in 2024. Results favouring bettors pushed the cumulative rate above the cap in September, and lower monthly rates in October and November brought it back down. The ANJ said this appears to reflect odds adjustments toward year-end, and that it checks operator compliance separately.

On risk, the ANJ found that excessive players accounted for more than 80% of stakes on the Brazilian, Saudi, Japanese and Australian leagues, and 80% to 89% on bets covering a single period of play. Ninety-three secondary football competitions, each under 2% of the sport's stakes, together took 37% of football stakes, with in-play betting making up 48% of stakes on them against 34% on major competitions.